


malfire

by rain_at_dawn



Series: stars, scattered [2]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Medieval Fantasy AU, with a twist at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22364257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_at_dawn/pseuds/rain_at_dawn
Summary: The wolves are at the doorAnd they've made us look before
Relationships: Kim Jonghyun/Lee Taemin
Series: stars, scattered [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608877
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	malfire

**Author's Note:**

> prompted by @XStarkit on Twitter
> 
> song inspo - malfire by refused (albeit, very, VERY loosely)

_Taemin_ , his first thought as he wakes up, the space next to him on the bed cold and empty.

_Your Highness_ , Jonghyun reminds himself within the next second as he rolls back on to his back and stretches. Time which was untethered under the watchful eyes of guards and advisors grew sparser as the days leading up to the coronation had sped up. Which was today.

_Your Highness, Your Grace_ , he practices the titles, wondering if there will also come a day when any of these wouldn’t feel so miserably foreign on his tongue. _My liege lord_.

Nothing compared to the coarser, sweeter names Jonghyun had coaxed out of his future king the night before, sealed between their lips. He was sure they hadn’t been loud enough to attract any nosy guards to the chamber doors, but he couldn’t blame Taemin for not wanting to be caught in the same room as his companion rogue mage.

Still, it wasn’t the best feeling to wake up to: being alone. Jonghyun had known enough of that before Taemin.

Throwing the bedcovers aside, he swings his legs off the mattress and walks towards the open window. The morning of Taemin’s coronation would be overcast in a baleful shade of blue, turning the red roses of his insignia black. Taemin had never wanted flowers on his coat of arms anyway; what was the point, when they wouldn’t last forever?

Jonghyun looks across the dismal sky, over the crest of the hill beyond the cemetery where the old rulers lay, shrouded in mist, until he finds the very person he’s looking for.

He doesn’t take long to wash and dress, picking up his staff from where it lay beside the space that would have been occupied by Taemin’s longsword. He’s hardly the most intimidating figure in court; the staff is his signifier, his shield from the eyes of the guards and advisors he passes by on the way from quarters that are off-limits to them. There might be an incantation for that, but he’d had other pressing concerns, the most important of which convened on a hill far enough from the castle’s spies for the moment.

It doesn’t take much out of Jonghyun to make it to the hill-top; strength and perseverance for the sake of one’s treasures was a magic in and of itself. He hopes that Taemin realizes this too; and even if he doesn’t, Jonghyun’s heart can bear that much for them both.

At the summit, Taemin is already dressed in his ceremonial armor. He cuts a pleasing figure before Jonghyun’s tired eyes as he stretches his hand up to stroke the smooth scales that lined Eve’s snout. Jonghyun’s sure he hears the dragon purr. 

“You really ought to have woken me too.” He calls out, not bothering to hide his affection. There was nothing but the wind to bear witness. “I missed you terribly.”

Taemin turns immediately at the sound of his voice, his face breaking into a smile brighter than any sunrise Jonghyun’s ever seen. He runs back to Jonghyun, right into his waiting arms.

Taemin’s cold. As light as the armor is, it’s hardly practical. Jonghyun wraps as much of his cloak as he can around them both, holding Taemin closer. It’s still not enough; the coronation will change things in a matter of hours.

They don’t talk about it. They hold tight and listen to the wind and the flutter of Eve’s scaly wings. They go back to the day they met, when one of them had been a lowly peasant who’d pulled a sword out of a stone and the other the only person who’d dared to believe in what he’d witnessed. The world becomes less than the war, the nightmares, the blood and the fires and the ruin; it trickles down to two pairs of hands and hearts that had battled too much together to fall apart.

“You’ll be there, right?”

Jonghyun always wonders if he falls just short enough of Taemin’s expectations, that he still feels the need to ask questions like this. He moves his hand to lift Taemin’s chin up, so that he can make his point clearer.

“Always.”

Like it was last night, the things that truly mattered were sealed with a kiss.

* * *

Taemin notices the disturbance of sound as soon as he enters the dorm. It’s too late for anyone else to still be awake. Except –

Jonghyun’s lying sprawled on the massage chair, headphones dangling around his neck as he sleeps with his mouth open. Taemin follows the faint drum and guitar blaring from each earbud with increasing amusement; he ends up switching off the CD player they’re connected to and wakes up Jonghyun.

“Oh, you’re back.” Jonghyun mumbles, shifting into a more modest position. “I had the weirdest dream.”

Taemin’s beyond exhausted from dancing his heart out at the MV shoot, but he’ll humor Jonghyun anytime. He creeps in beside him, legs winding around and between Jonghyun’s.

“Featuring Yours Truly?” He asks.

“Yeah. It was amazing.” Jonghyun’s hand finds its way into Taemin’s hair, blissfully welcome after a long day. “Though not in the way you’d imagine.”

Taemin snorts. “Figures. Maybe don’t listen to banshee screams before bedtime.”

“You’re one to talk. This CD’s from your goth phase.”

The heat rises in Taemin’s cheeks and he ends up trying to smother them as far inside Jonghyun’s chest as he can burrow. It’s still not enough to stifle the cringe. Jonghyun chuckles softly and the sound vibrates through them both.

“You were still so cute though. Still are. Even when you move like that on-stage.”

Six months since they’d officially been together and Taemin still doesn’t know how to take compliments from his boyfriend. He feels his heart flutter in the silence that falls over them; he wonders what Jonghyun fills it with in his head, what he really does dream about.

“You’ll be there at my showcase, won’t you?” He asks, just to be safe.

Jonghyun’s hand stills in his hair before he answers, his voice so soft it could break:

“Of course. I’ll always be there.” 


End file.
